It wasn’t surprising that there weren’t so many bicycle tourists in Belarus. But then we crossed into Schengen, into the EU, into Latvia’s Upper Daugava River valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a marked bicycle route all the way to Daugavpils. It will be crowded with tourists, I’m sure.
Years ago (like 30?!) I was on a Tashkent-Moscow Aeroflot flight that landed on a clear winter day in Minsk. All I could see was endless forest — “what’s it like down there?” I wondered. That day we spent about five hours at the Minsk airport until the weather improved in Moscow and we could continue to our planned destination.
This year Ebru, Ferda, and I bought tickets on the daily charter operated by Belavia from Antalya to Minsk. As summer started, we watched the weather with increasing trepidation. Throughout July Belarus and Poland were getting continuous heavy rain, and flood warnings were issued with almost every weather forecast. We arrived around midday on July 30th to partly cloudy skies.
As usual it took too long to go from boxes and bags of equipment to looking like bicycle tourists.
Continue readingwhere we visit the Roman sites of Herakleia Salbake, Nysa, Kızılçullu Su Kemerleri, Smyrna; Byzantine ruins at Kadifekale; Ottoman mosques; and İzmir’s historic synagogues
Ferda and I met up with Gülizar and Ali in İzmir this spring for our Likya Yolu walking tour. The timing worked out well to drive from Antalya to İzmir with Özgür. Being in a private car we were able to make a couple stops along the way. First was the ancient Caria city of Herakleia Salbake in Vakıf near Tavas, Denizli.
Rhodes — our 6th and final island of this month-long tour in Greece. Rhodes was the only island that I had visited before. Ferda and I arrived by ferry from Heraklion and met Ferda’s parents who arrived on the ferry from Fethiye. It was her father’s first time out of Turkey. We walked together to the bus station and went straight to Lindos the same day they arrived.
In the top right of that photo (above) is the Lindos acropolis, “a natural citadel which was fortified successively by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Knights of St John and the Ottomans” (wikipedia). Here’s another view of the acropolis from the north.
Continue readingThe impetus for this whole trip to Greece (in June!) was my cousin Andrew’s invitation to the house that he rented for a month in Emprosneros. I did a little research and learned that Crete has some nice walking opportunities. People particularly recommend the Samaria and Imbros gorges which are conveniently on the western part of the island not so far from where we were staying. After Ferda and my rather enjoyable spring Likya and Zengibar walking tours, I put together a four-day walking tour from Imbros to Xyloskala via both the aforementioned gorges, staying the nights in Hora Sfakion, Loutro, and Agia Roumeli. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Somehow the only ones Ferda and I were able to convince to join us were my cousin’s kids, Philip and Antonia. Anyone’s who older might be a little more sensible than to think it’s a good idea to walk around Crete in the summer?
The only photo I have of the four of us is at the end of the walk.
So now you know — we survived and are even still smiling after four days together.
Andrew greatly facilitated the transportation by dropping us off at the top of Imbros Gorge on the first morning and picking us up at the top of Samaria Gorge at the end. That meant we didn’t get an early start the first day, but Imbros Gorge is a short, casual walk — about 3.5 hours all the way to Hora Sfakion.
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